Why iPhone pictures flip when emailed, and how to fix it

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When receiving emailed photos from your parents, you’ll often run into upside-down or rotated images. You’ll also happen across some rotated images when transferring them from your iPhone to your Windows PC. It’s more a nuisance than a scourge, but removing a nuisance from your life is much better than dealing with it forever. Photos taken with an iPhone have been flipping for a while now, ever since iOS 5, but there’s a reason for that — and there’s also a relatively easy fix.

Why has my iPhone forsaken me?

The issue originated back when iOS 5 was released, because the operating system introduced the culprit: the ability to snap a photo with the phone’s volume up button. Basically, the camera’s sensor doesn’t realize when you rotate the phone to take a picture. Supposedly, your phone doesn’t correct the orientation itself because doing so would make it harder for the phone to take another picture immediately after the last. Instead, the iPhone writes the orientation info to the EXIF data of the image.

The reason why the images flip when you email them or transfer them to certain operating systems is because not all environments acknowledge EXIF data. This means that the orientation tags aren’t being acknowledged.

How do I deal with my terribly difficult life?

Luckily, there’s an easy fix that intercepts the problem before it begins. Sure, you can take an extra couple of seconds per photo and flip them once they’re on your computer — or you can simply take the photo with the volume buttons oriented on the bottom of your phone rather than the top. Rather than hit the volume up shutter with your right hand’s pointer finger, you’ll now have to take it with your left hand’s thumb. It’s a little awkward, but it saves time.

Another solution is to use a camera app that records the image information once it is taken, such as Camera+, though there are other apps if you develop a preference. If you have to fix a bunch of photos, the best way is with a desktop image editor — select all, rotate, save. From now on, though, flip the phone before you take the picture.